Giorgio's return to New York: The so-called ‘late’ de Chirico and American criticism (1972–2023)

Abstract

This article focuses on the relationship between Giorgio de Chirico's artwork and American criticism. It starts from the distorted and misrepresented view created by André Breton (and widely disseminated in the USA especially through James Thrall Soby's exhibitions and books) of an ‘early’ de Chirico, a leading painter of international art until 1917–1918, and a ‘late’ de Chirico, artistically doomed from 1919 until 1978, the year of his death. As an early indication of a more correct interpretation, I have focused on the great de Chirico exhibition held at the New York Cultural Center in 1972 that featured works ranging from 1911 to the early 1970s. Despite many negative reviews from American critics, still bound by modernist stereotypes, the exhibition was highly appreciated by major American artists such as Philip Guston and was the first spark of a dialogue between de Chirico and Warhol destined to yield important results in the ‘After de Chirico’ exhibition in 1982. The article then analyses the new climate that, since the 1980s, has fostered a proper reappraisal of de Chirico's entire oeuvre also in the USA, through a series of exhibitions, essays and articles up to 2023, finally dispelling the cliché of the ‘late’ de Chirico.